Hyderabad blasts: Two Delhi prisoners sent to NIA custody

The Delhi court yesterday remanded two alleged operatives of banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), lodged in a jail to NIA custody for four days for questioning over the February 21 Hyderabad blasts that killed 16 people and injured 117.

District Judge IS Mehta, during an in-chamber hearing, sent Syed Maqbool and Imran Khan to National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody till March 20 for confronting them with another alleged IM operative Obaid-ur-Rehman.

“In July last year, the two allegedly carried out a recce of Hyderabad’s Dilsukhnagar,” the NIA claimed. According to sources, the NIA told the judge that the IM operatives had given conflicting statements during their separate questioning.

The court earlier remanded Maqbool and Imran to NIA’s custody for five days during which they were taken to Hyderabad. The duo has been in judicial custody in Delhi’s Tihar prison after they were arrested for the August 2012 Pune blasts.